Friday, August 27, 2010

The "Little" Garden's Produce

The "little" garden has produced quite a bit for its size.  Here are a few examples:


The onions did well and will plant more next year.



I've 7 tomato bushes, but the Roma are the biggest producers.  The stands are falling over because I can just push the legs down about a foot or 16 inches before the ends hit rock.  :D  Nevertheless, it hasn't stopping the Romas from producing like crazy.  I've canned salsa, dried tomatoes, eaten and given tomatoes away.   


The size of these sweet green peppers are nothing to write home about but at least I've been able to pick a few.   I did not get one last year.  lol The peppers taste great; chopped them up to saute with onions and fresh tomatoes for scrambled eggs. 



These are dried on-the-vine black-eyed peas, a/k/a cow peas.  I did not plant enough this spring to get more than one small pot of fresh peas.  I let the rest of the pods dry so I can do a fall planting in the "big" garden.  

 

This a rescued cantaloupe from the "big" garden.  As mentioned before, something has eaten and/or ruined every cantaloupe in the "big" garden.  I snatched this one before the critter ruin it and am hoping it will ripen out for eating.  Speaking of the unknown critter, I've been tracking on Fed Ex the wildlife camera that was ordered Tuesday night.  The camera arrived in Austin last night and I just may have it this afternoon.  I can promise that the camera will be positioned in the garden within 24 hours of its arrival.  This morning I found two more green cantaloupes with chunks out of them!  Whatever critter is raiding my garden is going to have to tangle with me.  I've had to stop putting up the chicken wire along the bottom of the fence for a few days because my hands have been "eaten" up by the wire.  Gloves are too bulky to wear; fine motor skills are needed to tie the wire to the fence.  If the chicken wire effort does not do the trick, the only thing left to secure the garden is a solar-powered, electric wire around the perimeter.  :D  I don't want to do that. 

This year's gardening has been more of an experiment in what and which varieties will or will not grow in our calichie/limestone soil even though the soil has been amended with good compost.  The soil needs more amending; we've plenty of old hay that the cows have left on the ground along with some cow patties.  I'm going to work some of the hay into both gardens, the "big" and the "little," but can't decide whether or not to order more compost and when, i.e., late fall or early spring.

Until next time, God bless.
 


5 comments:

wenn said...

wow, that's great!

SquirrelQueen said...

Looks the little garden has done well. Nice that you were able to rescue one cantaloupe from the garden critter. I'm looking forward to seeing what the camera captures. My money is still on a raccoon (like the one that comes to my patio almost every night).

Sue said...

That's surely something worth being thankful for on Thanksgiving Day!
I think even carrots and potatoes grow well in limestone soil, we used to get alot of carrots and potatoes in Malta when I lived there and that island has limestone soil too. I think it all depends on the density of the soil.
Enjoy your weekend!
Sue.

Leora said...

I love looking at your garden produce. One year a cantaloupe grew in my garden... I waited a day, and "someone" had eaten it. We finally had some cucumbers, even though we had to do battle with a ground hog midsummer (we finally caught him/her and set loose several miles away) who loved to eat cucumber leaves.

The JR said...

The tomatoes look good! We are going to use a 16 ft livestock panel next year to tie our tomatoes on.

Those tomato baskets always bend over with the weight.